PREMIER LEAGUE, DECEMBER 4, 2021.
NEWCASTLE 1 (Wilson 40) BURNLEY 0 Att: 51,948
NEWCASTLE: Dúbravka, Manquillo, Schär, Lascelles, Lewis, Almirón (Fernandez), Shelvey, Willock, Saint- Maximin (Murphy), Wilson, Joelinton.
BURNLEY: Pope, Tarkowski, Collins, Taylor, Lowton (Roberts), Brownhill, Westwood, McNeill,
Gudmundsson (Rodriguez), Cornet (Vydra), Wood.
Three o’clock on Saturday is no time for playing football. Heaven forbid. It’s also a clue that you are playing Burnley at home, the most un ‘Super Sunday’ (yuck) team in the Premier League, despite Scott Parker’s strange knitwear combinations.
So the Clarets it is then. Flashback wise it’s always pretty thin on the ground as, when they visited in 1982 and Imre Varadi scored, we didn’t play again in the top flight until Steven Taylor and Moussa Sissoko (two of my big favourites there) scored in a 3-0 win in 2015.
We remain unbeaten against them for fifty years in the league in NE1 and you can’t say that very often. If you are Steve Bruce, then you actually don’t count losing a League Cup tie in 2021 as we only lost on penalties. I know. I know. It’s not worth it. Your psychiatrist wouldn’t want you ‘dwelling’.
Bruce hadn’t long gone and was away watching the Ashes when the game I’ve picked was played, but his greasy hands were all over the football club still. It’s the 1-0 win in 2021. Yes, that one.
Look at the date. The first week in December. In some houses the decorations were up, Smooth radio was already onto playing the fifteenth Christmas song of the day, and we hadn’t won a single game of football. Nothing. Not one. Nada.
It’s hard to take that in right now. Outside the City limits of Wolverhampton, it’s hard to comprehend.
We had some near things. Jacob Murphy chipped the life out of us when clean through on 90-plus at Watford, plus there were some encouraging latter performances as we drew with Brentford 3-3 and Norwich last time out, despite the red card for Kieran Clark which, in turn, invented this thing called Joelinton.
Encouragement gets you nowhere though. Like in my middle school team after a severe humping off a posh rugby playing team from Morpeth, our PE teacher would announce that he’s never seen as much heart in his life from us. Forgive me, but after that sort of patronising crap, I’ve always been a bit pithy towards “Encouraging”.
We were bottom after 13 games. How did the NUFC PE teacher spin that? Like he always does. In a calm, cool, collected, lying to his back teeth, but we don’t care sort of way.
Our last PE teacher left us in the sort of mess that meant we were going to have to go some to avoid the Championship. We had even said statements like “The Championship is better anyway. Better away trips and more tickets”. You know you are knackered when you say that.
Howe had a false start with Covid since taking over and a first game proper saw a predictable defeat to Arsenal and the Norwich draw. Burnley were hovering (as is their want) and away from home were lousy. This was do or die for us with cup winners Leicester and then Man Utd, Man City, and Liverpool taking us into January. To have any chance we had to win today .
We were nervous. The crowd was very good. We were loud, patient and it took at least ten minutes for the first angst for Sean Longstaff. I know he wasn’t playing, that’s the point. Callum Wilson looked in the mood. He looked like a certain early scorer but was blocked as he was about to wheel away and celebrate.
Burnley were the team that prays on any murmurs in the crowd and they looked dangerous when Cornet got the ball. He fed Gudmunsson who crashed a shot off the angle of post and bar.
Some people say the win at Leeds was the turning point in Newcastle’s recent history, I would say it was when Cornet limped off in this game. He was tormenting us and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief when he went off. No ice cream puns I promise.
On 40 minutes we grabbed the lead and Nick Pope was right at the heart of it. Willock put in a poor cross and Popey came out to claim it like he was ‘Billy Big Balls’. Just when everyone was about to slag Willock off, Pope dropped the ball as he fell with Schär around the scene of the crime and Wilson took it on. It still needed some finishing but he did superbly, crashing in off the bar from just inside the box. Get in!
The second half was tense, with us in some sort of ascendancy. Wilson played through Almirón who should have done better than the keeper tipping it wide, before a near goal line block denied Shelvey. Almirón still hadn’t scored yet.
The longer it went on, though, it was more likely to happen. We switched off on 81 minutes and sub Jay Rodriguez rifled in. The whole ground seemed to stand still before the correct linesman’s flag was raised. It was too much to take. This was genuine torture.
Then it came. The final whistle. The outpouring of relief, emotion and more importantly hope washed over St James’ like a Tsunami. It was the first day of team groups in the dressing rooms and laps of honours. Other clubs laughed, but this meant as much to me as much as any Newcastle win over my lifetime. It was as big as it gets.
Although we lost 4-0 next up and lost to Cambridge soon after, the escape route was put on the rusty old sat nav. We were fantastic from January onwards and going to the match was like an event again. I started to enjoy it.
Newcastle 1 Burnley 0. The day we started to enjoy going to the match again.
Now that’s a flashback.
Scott Robson
